Charles Pasley
General Sir Charles William Pasley KCB FRS (1780–1861) was a British soldier and military engineer who wrote the defining text on the role of the post-American revolution British Empire: An Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire, published in 1810. This text changed how Britons thought their empire should relate to the rest of the world. He warned that Britain could not keep its Empire by its "splendid isolation". Britain would need to fight to gain its empire, and by using the colonies as a resource for soldiers and sailors it grew by an average of 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) per year between the Battle of Waterloo and the American Civil War. Serving in the Royal Engineers in the Napoleonic Wars, he was Europe's leading demolitions expert and siege warfare specialist.
Pasley was born at Eskdale Muir, Dumfriesshire, on 8 September 1780. He was highly intelligent, capable of translating the New Testament from Greek at the age of eight. In 1796, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; a year later he gained his commission in the Royal Artillery, and he was transferred to the Royal Engineers in 1798.
He was present in the defence of Gata, the Battle of Maida, and the siege of Copenhagen. In 1807, then a captain, he went to the Iberian Peninsula, where his knowledge of the Spanish language led to his employment on the staff of Sir David Baird and Sir John Moore. He took part in the retreat to Corunna and the Walcheren Expedition, and received a severe wound while gallantly leading a storming party at Flushing. During his tedious recovery, he employed himself in learning German.
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